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Belthion Succession War
The Belthion Succession War was a civil war that took place in the Dorian Empire from 226 DR to 229 DR. The warring parties were supporters of a continued Belthion reign, and supporters of the Therenane family. Background In 186, Evan Therenane presented himself to reigning king Albus II as his bastard son, and after some medical testing, Albus II concurred and placed Evan immediately after Prince Herbert in the line of succession. In 189, however, Herbert had a son of his own, Garrett. This led to some debate; while Evan claimed that Albus' writ put him directly after Herbert in the line of succession, Herbert asserted that his son would precede his brother in the line of succession, and other Belthionists alleged that as a bastard Evan was completely ineligible. (These conflicts only really came to light after Albus' death and Herbert's accession, so Albus himself was not able to rule on the matter.) Breakout of war Herbert II died in 226, and as Garrett proceeded to his coronation shortly afterward, Evan ambushed his party and forced them to scatter. As a symbolic gesture, Evan also took the physical crown for himself and began wearing it. This led to an immediate mobilization of forces on both sides in Dorio proper, and battles began throughout the country. The Belthionists, principally through numbers, were able to reach an early advantage, although the Therenanists managed to garner support in Kenkor and along the southern coast. Benedict Therenane, Evan's son, also set up a neutral enclave in Leguna in 226, preventing the fighting from spreading to the east of his "Peace Line." Gunpowder From the early days of the war, gunpowder was key, as both Garrett and Evan experimented with gunpowder explosives in battle. This led to some interesting developments, such as the siege of High Belt, which ended after only a few days due to the wall being destroyed by gunpowder. It quickly became apparent that gunpowder was crucial to the war effort, so, heavily outmatched in direct combat, Evan decided in 227 to seek superiority by monopolizing the gunpowder trade. In Mifether 227, Evan was able to seize several key spots along Kenkori trade routes in order to prevent the Belthionists from importing gunpowder by land; since Evan's wife, Andrea Bervick, was connected to a shipping company, the Therenanists were able to dominate gunpowder's sea trade. The Saltsmoke Desert nations themselves were apathetic to the issue, concerned mainly with keeping the money flowing in. As Evan's forces were able to trick Garrett into squandering his gunpowder supplies, the battles turned more and more in favor of the Therenanists, and Garrett started getting desperate. Breaking of the Peace Line In early 228, Garrett hit on a solution to restore his gunpowder supplies; he would have Hecrivastin merchants sail through the Lessington Sea and deliver gunpowder to ports on the eastern side of Leguna, which Garrett could then smuggle westward into the area of combat. Evan, again forced onto the defensive, began to search for Garrett's new source of gunpowder, although since he assumed the Peace Line would hold he never settled upon Leguna as a potential source. This changed when Grant Steel, an overzealous Belthionist smuggler, made a failed assassination attempt on Benedict Therenane with a gunpowder bomb. This publicly displayed that the Peace Line had been broken by Garrett's forces, turning popular opinion suddenly against them. Several prominent Dorian families, including the Cantings, even switched their allegiances in the wake of the discovery. Late wartime In the autumn of 228, Evan began a naval offensive against Garrett, and directed the bulk of his focus to that while Adolphe Canting kept the Belthionists occupied on land; the Canting presence in Cantingvale proved particularly troublesome for Garrett, who faced frequent raids and riots in his home territory. By 229 Evan had secured the Lessington seaboard and forced the naval front into the Kenkor Lagoon, an area he already had close control over. This culminated in the Battle of Great Nev on 18 Hortiflos 229, in which Garrett was killed and Evan formally won the war. Category:Wars